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In my February blog we talked about finding God’s will through the Bible, positioning ourselves to do His will, getting godly counsel, and rattling doorknobs. I promised to give you some personal examples of how I found God’s will in several areas of my life. Today I’m going to talk about how God led me through various steps in writing for Christian publication. I hope this will help some of you who are searching for God’s will in a similar area.

Getting Started

I enjoyed writing from the first time I had to write an essay for grade school all the way up to Bible college. I didn’t know anything about writing for publication, however, and I didn’t know if I would be “good enough” to do this. Early in my junior year at Faith Baptist Bible College I asked the Lord to show me if this is what he had for me.

God used a godly counsellor, one of my professors, to help me begin to think about this. Mr. Clarence Townsend taught both journalism classes the school offered at that time. He had published at least some articles. He was familiar with my writing. He asked me a scary question: “If you could do anything you wanted with your writing, what would you choose?”

I told him someday I would love to write a series of children’s books like the Chronicles of Narnia. He didn’t laugh! He told me to set that as a long range goal. That took my breath away.

Then he helped me form some short range goals to get to my long range goals. He showed me how to submit an article for a take-home paper with Regular Baptist Press. He showed me the writers’ guidelines and talked about the kind of article they would probably like to see. He helped me dare to actually submit an article. My first article or two were rejected, but I soon established a rapport with the editor and began submitting articles on a regular basis. Getting articles published was a short range goal that also allowed me to have a ministry in the short run.

I also pursued other short range goals: writing kids’ prayer letters, attending writers’ conferences, reading publications on writing, writing plays and puppet shows for ministry. All of these things developed my writing skill, taught me how to work with editors, and help me develop new ideas.

Writing Books and Ministry Materials

In the 1980’s I also wrote my first book. I submitted it to editors, had it critiqued by professionals, rewrote it, retitled it, submitted it to more editors. One editor had showed interest in the first chapter, but when I finished the book he was no longer interested. I spent 4 or 5 hours just printing out that book to send to an editor. I sent it by mail and waited months to hear about it.

At one point, while I was waiting to hear from an editor, I wrote another book. This was a kid’s book about a missionary kid who came from the US to live in Taiwan. This book was easy to write because the protagonist, Amy, dealt with some of the same issues I had to wrestle with as an adult who moved to Taiwan. While the first book has never been published, Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World was published by Bob Jones University Press in 1994. By now It has been printed seven times. It’s part of BJUP’s homeschool curriculum for third grade and has been used by many mission boards to prepare MK’s to go to the mission field.

With my first book in print I figured I could largely leave articles behind and begin to write kids’ books. In time BJUP did publish three more of my books for kids and teens. I also tried to market other manuscripts: a VBS program, Christmas programs, a puppet show book, an ESL Bible study book. I initially wrote these things for our own ministry, but wanted to be able to offer them to others. Some of these I successfully marketed to Christian publishers, some I didn’t.

Finding New Markets and Means of Publication

If you know anything about writing for publication you know that selling work to traditional Christian publishers changed dramatically in the early years of the new millennium. Things that used to be easy to sell, no longer were. Today traditional publishers are much slower to take risks. But now we see the rise of “indie publishing” in which independent authors self-publish or use small independent publishers and maintain complete creative control over their books. Indie publication is the great game changer that opens new doors for authors today.

After traditionally publishing four books, Edges of Truth, carried me into the new world of indie publishing. I felt the Lord leading me to write this true story of Mary Weaver, a godly Christian woman who was convicted of shaking and slamming a baby to death. God worked in amazing ways in the case of this innocent lady, but traditional publishers felt Mary wasn’t well enough known for them to take risks on her story. I self-published this book in 2013 without the need for years of searching for an agent and a publisher. Though self-publishing means I have to find designers to do what I can’t and do my own book promotion, I enjoy writing what I think the Lord wants me to write with the guarantee it can reach publication.

The internet also offers a digital platform to sell or give away writing in a myriad of forms.

In forty years of ministry I’ve written many ministry resources which, while helpful to us, were almost impossible to sell to traditional publishers. Though I wasn’t able to sell some of these puppet shows, programs, and ESL Bible studies to publishers, they created a lot of interest when offered on my website. Having your own website and blog gives you the freedom to write things your way and offer them to others.

Self-publication is becoming easier all the time, but if you are self-publishing you need to make sure you are offering a quality product. You need to be prepared to market that product in a variety of ways. Information about self-publication and marketing is available in many different formats over the internet.

So I still need the Lord’s guidance. I continue to ask him to lead me in the current writing process. I seek advice from Christian writers and groups who know more about publication than I do. I talk to editors and other writers at conferences. I submit manuscripts and pay attention to the reaction from editors and agents. I look for feedback from people I trust. I take the next step and ask God to lock the doors I shouldn’t go through, and open the ones I should.

God uses these things to lead me step by step forward. With each step the Lord shows me enough to take the next step. And we go forward together.

Perhaps you are beginning to write for Christian publication and you don’t know what to do next. Where can you go for answers to questions and suggestions for your next steps?

I have many articles that give tips on starting to write for publication. You might find them helpful.

Does God want me to be a missionary? Should I make a career change? How should I treat a new unmarried couple in church who claim to be Christians but are living together? Should I pursue a new interest or join a community group? How often should I go to church if my unsaved husband doesn’t want me to go at all?

These can be tough questions without clear answers. Thankfully, God does want us to know his will, if we want to do it because we love him. I’ve been a Christian for fifty-seven years. I’ve had to find out what God wanted me to do about ministry choices, friends, writing for publication, people problems, and many other things. When I need guidance about a decision these are the things I consider.

What does the Bible say?

The Bible speaks clearly on many issues. It defines morality, forbids stealing, gossip, and using God’s name in vain. I don’t have to pray about whether or not to do something when God commands me to do it or not to do it. I must obey.

Other things are not specifically dealt with in Scripture, but Scriptural principles apply. The Bible doesn’t tell me not to smoke or view pornography. It does, however, tell me that my body belongs to God. It’s a temple of the Holy Spirit. I need to take care of it. Jesus taught that lustful desires in the heart are the root sin of physical immorality. These principles help me to know what God wants me to do in many cases.

Some churches today actually teach that the Bible doesn’t apply to life today! I can’t imagine that, as we have a Bible in about every room of our house. As people come to talk over their problems we are constantly reaching for a Bible. In any decision we make, we need to consult the Bible first. If it tells us what to do, we don’t need to second guess it. We only need to obey.

Position yourself to do God’s will.

Let’s say you want to become a great basketball player. You find out there’s a great team in town that you can join, and the coach is fantastic. You go down to the gym and watch practices, hang out, ask the coach questions. At first the coach answers your questions. Members of the team show you a few tips. But if you keep asking for help, but don’t want to join the team, what will the coach say? “Hey, buddy, if you want me to give you advice, join the team! Let’s see some commitment and then I’ll help you all I can.”

Salvation is the first step to positioning yourself to do God’s will. When you get saved, you “join God’s team.” God wants us to accept his Son Jesus as our Savior and commit to living for him. Why should he give us advice if we won’t even get on the same side as he is and work for the same things? (John 1:12)

We also need to give our lives to God, promising to do whatever he wants us to do. God doesn’t reveal his will so we can vote on it. When we show God we’re serious about doing his will, he will let us know what that is.

Often we ask God to show us his will, and then expect it to be terrible. “Lord, if you really want me to, I’ll be a missionary to reach the hardest tribe with the most difficult language and live in conditions that will cause me to balance on the edge of death even though it is totally opposite to all my spiritual and natural gifts and I know I’ll hate it.” We may be surprised to find that, when we truly find God’s will, it is a place that fits us well and we can enjoy serving in that capacity.

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) Some people think this means, “he will give me anything I want.” Actually I believe this means that if we delight ourselves in the Lord he will give us the desire to serve him in the way he wants us to serve.

How do we “delight ourselves in the Lord”? The same way we delight ourselves in people we love very much. We listen to him by reading the Bible and learning about it. We talk to him in prayer about the things that matter to us. We hang out with him by talking with him throughout the day’s activities. We grow to know him better and love him more. As we do this, God will make his will clear to us.

Ask for godly counsel.

We can always find friends who will tell us what we want to hear, but we need to search out counsellors who care about pleasing God and finding his best for us. Proverbs 11:14 tells us there is safety in this approach. That doesn’t mean the counsellor makes our decisions for us. It does mean that the counsellor can point out things we might not see on our own. Pros and cons of a certain decision. Helpful hints. Biblical principles we may have missed. The other side to the story.

Rattle some doorknobs.

God can steer us best if we are moving forward. If we truly want God’s will, he will close the doors we should not go through and open doors we should. (Revelation 3:7-8.) Sometimes we need to rattle a doorknob to see if the door is locked.

One way of doing this is to set a long range goal that we want to ultimately achieve, and then set short range goals of activities that will help us reach the long range goals.

Sometimes God wants us to stand still and wait until he leads definitely, but many times we can prayerfully proceed in a certain direction, asking God to lead us in a different direction if that’s what he wants. He won’t speak in an audible voice, but he will lead us through circumstances and giving us peace about certain steps.

Maybe these points all sound good, but you don’t know how to put them into practice. Need to see them spelled out in actual circumstances? In the March and April blogs I’m going to give several personal examples of my search for God’s will in a number of areas. I hope this will give you some ideas that help you search out God’s will for your life.

Part 2 gives an example of how I found God’s will for my life in writing for Christian publication.

Part 3 gives an example of how God led me into missions and to the place we now serve in missions.

Last week we talked about finding God’s will through the Bible, positioning ourselves to do His will, getting Godly counsel, and rattling doorknobs. I promised to give you some personal examples of how I found God’s will in several areas of my life. Today I’m going to talk about how God led me through various steps in writing for Christian publication. I hope this will help some of you who are searching for God’s will in a similar area.

Getting Started

I enjoyed writing from the first time I had to write an essay for grade school all the way up to Bible college. I didn’t know anything about writing for publication, however, and I didn’t know if I would be “good enough” to do this. Early in my junior year at Faith Baptist Bible College I asked the Lord to show me if this is what he had for me.

God used a Godly counsellor, one of my professors, to help me begin to think about this. Mr. Clarence Townsend taught both journalism classes the school offered at that time. He had published at least some articles. He was familiar with my writing. He asked me a scary question: “If you could do anything you wanted with your writing, what would you choose?”

I told him someday I would love to write a series of children’s books like the Chronicles of Narnia. He didn’t laugh! He told me to set that as a long range goal. That took my breath away.

Then he helped me form some short range goals to get to my long range goals. He showed me how to submit an article for a take-home paper with Regular Baptist Press. He showed me the writers’ guidelines and talked about the kind of article they would probably like to see. He helped me dare to actually submit an article. My first article or two were rejected, but I soon established a rapport with the editor and began submitting articles on a regular basis. Getting articles published was a short range goal that also allowed me to have a ministry in the short run.

I also pursued other short range goals: writing kids’ prayer letters, attending writers’ conferences, reading publications on writing, writing plays and puppet shows for ministry. All of these things developed my writing skill, taught me how to work with editors, and help me develop new ideas.

Writing Books and Ministry Materials

In the 1980’s I also wrote my first book. I submitted it to editors, had it critiqued by professionals, rewrote it, retitled it, submitted it to more editors. One editor had showed interest in the first chapter, but when I finished the book he was no longer interested. I spent 4 or 5 hours just printing out that book to send to and editor. I sent it by mail and waited months to hear about it.

At one point, while I was waiting to hear from an editor, I wrote another book. This was a kid’s book about a Missionary’s Kid who came from the US to live in Taiwan. This book was easy to write because the protagonist, Amy, dealt with some of the same issues I had to wrestle with as an adult that came to Taiwan. While the first book has never been published, Peanut Butter Friends in a Chop Suey World was published by Bob Jones University Press in 1994. It is now in its seventh printing. It is part of BJUP’s homeschool curriculum for third grade and has been used by many mission boards to prepare MK’s to go to the mission field.

So then I figured I could largely leave articles behind and begin to write kids’ books. In time BJUP did publish three more of my books for kids and teens. I also tried to market other manuscripts: a VBS program, Christmas programs, a puppet show book, an ESL Bible study book. I initially wrote these things for our own ministry, but wanted to be able to offer them to others. Some of these I successfully marketed, some I didn’t.

Finding New Markets and Means of Publication

If you know anything about writing for publication you know that the market has changed dramatically in the last ten years or so. Things that used to be easy to sell, no longer are. Traditional publishers are much slower to take risks. At the same time new avenues of publication have opened up. Sometimes it seems like all the rules of writing for publication have changed.

I found that some helpful material, like puppet shows, were almost impossible to sell to publishers, but created a lot of interest when offered on my website. I needed to think outside the box of traditional publishers and find other ways to make my writing available. The internet gives many ways to offer your materials. You may be paid for some of this, and you may offer some things for free. Having your own website and blog give you the freedom to write things your way and offer them to others in a variety of ways.

Self-publication is also a much more viable option than it was in times past. If you are self-publishing, however, you need to make sure you are offering a quality product. You need to be prepared to market that product in a variety of ways. Information about self-publication and marketing is available in many different formats over the internet.

You would think that after 35 years of writing for publication, I’d know how to do everything. Instead I find I have to continue to learn write in new ways for new audiences. I’m preparing to self-publish my first book, Edges of Truth: The Mary Weaver Story. I wouldn’t have considered doing that even ten years ago, but in this circumstance, at this time, I believe it is the right choice.

So I still need the Lord’s guidance. Every day I ask him to lead me in the current writing process. I seek advice from Christian writers and groups who know more about publication than I do. I talk to editors and other writers at conferences. I submit manuscripts and pay attention to the reaction from editors and agents. I look for feedback from people I trust. I take the next step and ask God to lock the doors I shouldn’t go through, and open the ones I should.

God uses these things to lead me step by step forward. With each step the Lord shows me enough to take the next step. And we go forward together.

Perhaps you are beginning to write for Christian publication and you don’t know what to do next. Where can you go for answers to questions and suggestions for your next steps?

Does God want me to be a missionary? Should I make a career change? How should I treat a new unmarried couple in church who claim to be Christians but are living together? Should I pursue a new interest or join a community group? How often should I go to church if my unsaved husband doesn’t want me to go at all?

These can be tough questions without clear answers. Thankfully, God does want us to know his will, if we want to do it because we love him. I’ve been a Christian for 53 years and have had to find out what God wanted me to do about ministry choices, friends, writing for publication, people problems, and many other things. When I need guidance about a decision these are the things I consider.

1. What does the Bible say?

The Bible speaks clearly on many issues. It defines morality, forbids stealing, gossip, and using God’s name in vain. I don’t have to pray about whether or not to do something when God commands me to do it or not to do it. I must obey.

Other things are not specifically dealt with in Scripture, but Scriptural principles apply. The Bible doesn’t tell me not to smoke or view pornography. It does, however, tell me that my body belongs to God. It’s a temple of the Holy Spirit. I need to take care of it. Jesus taught that lustful desires in the heart are the root sin of physical immorality. These principles help me to know what God wants me to do in many cases.

Some churches today actually teach that the Bible doesn’t apply to life today! I can’t imagine that, as we have a Bible in about every room of our house. As people come to talk over their problems we are constantly reaching for one. In any decision we make, we need to consult the Bible first. If it tells us what to do we don’t need to second guess it. We only need to obey.

2. Position yourself to do God’s will.

Let’s say you wanted to become a great basketball player. You find out there’s a great team in town that you can join, and the coach is fantastic. You go down to the gym and watch practices, hang out, ask the coach questions. At first the coach answers your questions. Members of the team show you a few tips. But if you keep asking for help, but don’t want to join the team, what will the coach say? “Hey, buddy, if you want me to give you advice, join the team! Let’s see some commitment and then I’ll help you all I can.”

Salvation is the first step to positioning yourself to do God’s will. When you get saved, you “join God’s team.” God wants us to accept his Son Jesus as our Savior and commit to living for him. Why should he give us advice if we won’t even get on the same side as he is and work for the same things? (John 1:12)

We also need to give our lives to God, promising to do whatever he wants us to do. God doesn’t reveal his will so we can vote on it. When we show God we’re serious about doing his will, he will let us know what that is.

Often we ask God to show us his will, and then expect it to be terrible. “Lord, if you really want me to, I’ll be a missionary to reach the hardest tribe with the most difficult language and live in conditions that will cause me to balance on the edge of death even though it is totally opposite to all my spiritual and natural gifts and I know I’ll hate it.” We may be surprised to find that, when we truly find God’s will, it is a place that fits us well and we enjoy serving in that capacity.

“Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4) Some people think this means, “he will give me anything I want.” Actually I believe this means that if we delight ourselves in the Lord he will give us the desire to serve him in the way he wants us to serve.

How do we “delight ourselves in the Lord”? The same way we delight ourselves in people we love very much. We listen to him by reading the Bible and learning about it. We talk to him in prayer about the things that matter to us. We hang out with him by talking with him throughout the day’s activities. We grow to know him better and love him more. As we do this, God will make his will clear to us.

3. Ask for Godly counsel.

We can always find friends who will tell us what we want to hear, but we need to search out counsellors who care about pleasing God and finding his best for us. Proverbs 11:14 tells us there is safety in this approach. That doesn’t mean the counsellor makes our decisions for us. It does mean that the counsellor can point out things we might not see on our own. Pros and cons of a certain decision. Helpful hints. Biblical principles we may have missed. The other side to the story.

4. Rattle some doorknobs.

God can steer us best if we are moving forward. If we truly want God’s will, he will close the doors we should not go through and open doors we should. (Revelation 3:7-8.) Sometimes we need to rattle a doorknob to see if the door is locked.

One way of doing this is to set a long range goal that we want to ultimately achieve, and then set short range goals of activities that will help us reach the long range goals.

Sometimes God wants us to stand still and wait until he leads definitely, but many times we can prayerfully proceed in a certain direction, asking God to lead us in a different direction if that’s what he wants. He won’t speak in an audible voice, but he will lead us through circumstances and giving us peace about certain steps.

Maybe these points all sound good, but you don’t know how to put them into practice. Need to see them spelled out in actual circumstances? In the next weeks I’m going to give several personal examples of my search for God’s will in a number of areas. I hope this will give you some ideas that help you search out God’s will for your life.